Reviews of Recent Events

Please check out my reviews of the October events that we had at www.starvingvendors.com

EOS WINERY Arts and Crafts Fair, Paso Robles, CA Oct 18-19 "THE ZERO DOLLAR Arts and Crafts Show" Where are the people?

Monterey Columbus Day Festival Oct 11-12 Monterey is such a beautiful place for an event and over the years, many tourists (and locals, of course) have visited the many festivals here. However, with the economy in a downward spiral and the stock market taking a tumble, crowds were down here and people locked their wallets.

HOMEFRONT FESTIVAL by the Bay, Richmond, CA October 4-5, 2008

I have many other reviews and stories, information on the website and I am sure that you will find them enjoyable. Come take a look...see what vendors must endure at festivals, etc.

Puka Shell necklaces

lease shop at our website: http://www.dandlcreations.com/ Support the author of this blogs' business. We make custom sized puka shell necklaces, semi-precious, cowrie shell chokers and a whole lot more. Come check us out. Been in business for 15 years now.

If I could re-live this past weekend....

I would have done the Pismo Beach Clam Fest instead of the sick-ass EOS Winery Arts and Crafts Fair. I really didn't want to pay the extra $200 for booth space and extra for motel. I know a number of vendors that did this one and they said they did good. There were less vendors there this year....I guess the economy, etc., has hit us pretty hard,.

Or there was the Campbell Octoerfest (San Jose), which I really should have done. Much less on gas, no motel and some people said they did okay. Perhaps, next year look for us over there.

EOS WINERY Arts and Crafts Show

Oct 18-19 PASO ROBLES. Craft show was held at the EOS WINERY on Highway 46, 5 miles east of Hway 101.

Approx 20-25 booths with assorted merchandise. Saturday was slow and Sunday was even worse. TERRIBLE. First time that my sales were $0.00 for a day. Correctamundo....ZERO DOLLARS. On Saturday, there really weren't that many 'tasters' visiting the premises. The drunks stayed inside while they sent the wives out to shop, which was just a walk for them. Hardley any sales for anybodyl

Sunday was a nightmare to behold. Hardly anybody... The two vendors beside me left for other events....... Pismo Beach and Cambell's Octoberfest. Kettle Corn packed it up on Saturday also. On Sunday, I took my big ZERO and packed my stuff just after noon and got out of there. My neighbord, who was also ZERO for the day, packed up and left also.

I really can not explain why this show was so screwed up. Not really the promoter's fault though. Just nobody coming and nobody drinking. Don't know what the people lof Paso Robles do around here, with all the beautiful wineries located in this growing region, but they sure the hell are not frequenting the wineries.

Vote for President

CAST YOUR BALLOT FOR PRESIDENT:

____ Joe the Plumber

____ Barracks O' Bomber

____ DAVE THE VENDOR

____ Candy McCane

2008 Dia de los Muertos Festival

This festival is held annualy in Oakland along International Blvd and this year, it shall be on Sunday, October 26. We are getting closer to that date and I wish to give some strong, stern and helpful advice.

VENDORS BEWARE. I know quite a number of people (vendors) who have sold here and they report a lot of merchandise being stolen. If you are selling rings, jewelry and other small items you can kiss your butt good-bye. I did this show 5 years ago and around 9-10 years ago and I did lose some jewelry. There are a lot of people at this event and it is mostly a get-together, party type festival and they are not interested in buying...especially with the economy the way it is.

I have a friend who sold jewelry and he had it arranged in cases. Somebody actually pilfered one of his cases, jewelry and all and stood there laughing at him with his Mexican friends, waiting for him to chase after him so they could steal more.

I do a lot of events throughout the year and everybody has bad things to say about this event. Maybe they should rename it the "Thieves Festival" because vendors suffer a lot of losses. Nobody has ever told me anything good about this event and I strongly advise all sensible vendors to stay the hell away from this one. Nobody is going to buy....you are going to get things stolen left and right.

I would like to hear people's comments on this one...especially vendors who have gotten ripped off.

Los Osos/Baywood Oktoberfest Sunday Oct 26

We did this one-day event for a number of years, but we have discontinued mainly due to the high gas prices and slow sales, which have dwindled there the past couple times we did it.

It's a nice social event and gathering for the locals and the dogs get to smooch one another's butts, as there are hundreds there for the dog show, etc.

There's a good number of vendors stretched along 3-4 blocks selling a vast array of merchandise. Usually, the weather is pretty nice here, but we did have some sprinkles a few years back. However, the people do not buy very much, as I have mentioned that this is more or less, a social gathering.

These two communities sponsoring the event are located between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay.

Please click here to read about more shows that we no longer do.

Paso Robles EOS Winery Craft Show

This coming weekend, Oct 18-19, we shall be in Paso Robles (Hwy 101-north of San Luis Obispo) at the EOS Winery. Arciero Vineyards, Harvest Wine Tour Weekend, for all of the wineries in the area. EOS is one of the largest, and most visited wineries, with the best location for an arts and crafts fair, in the whole area. The weather is usually awesome this time of year, in Paso Robles and surrounding environs.

Weather forecasts show temps in the mid-80's and sunny. Great weather. No rain in sight. Enjoy your weekend here.

Quite a number of quality vendors will be there, so come on over and check us out. We are DandL CREATIONS. Look for the canopy with shoulder bags, fannypacks, shell necklaces and a whole lot more. www.dandlcreations.com

Monterey Custom House Plaza swamped with 35,000 people

Oct 11. Monterey, CA. I wish that was the title for this. Figures submitted to Craftmaster News for Monterey's Columbus Day Festival showed crowds supposed to be 35,000 in number. Well....I guess we have more people missing in action. There were quite a number of vendors at the event, but I don't think we had much more than 3,000 people visiting the show.

I've been doing events here for 14 years now and this is the absolute worst that I have ever seen. The promoter's did pretty good. They filled the place up with vendors (however, way too much jewelry) and had a decent number of food vendors and entertainment. Setting up wasn't too difficult, if you came early, but as time passes on, it does become congested.

Weather forecasts called for temps in the 60's and very strong winds sustaining speeds of 30 mph. However, we were pretty much spared the wrath of the winds. During the morning, the Parks Dept (of the Historical Park area) came to each booth to ensure that everybody was weighed down adequately. This is the first time I ever saw them do this and I wonder if previous winds at shows here have uplifted very many booths and they are very cautious.

So, crowds were low as compared to previous shows here and they just were not buying, having been even more scared off by events in the Stock Market this past week and many of them probably lost a lot of money as a result, making these shows more difficult than they already were. Sales were very low for pretty much everybody and the booths that had larger crowds surrounding them were merely engulfed by looky-loos.
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Shell Necklaces

Check out our website www.dandlcreations.com for great buys on puka shell and semi-precious necklaces. Huge assortment of hand-made, choose your size necklaces; also wrap-around skirts and a lot more.

Visit www.starvingvendors.com to read about craft shows, festivals and lots of other things pertaining to selling at events. Advice, stories, etc., reviews.

Polls

When you are walking around festivals, etc., does somebody ever approach you and ask you to take a poll, etc. or answer a bunch of questions? Usually there's about half a dozen individuals stopping people and asking. If you say 'yes' they show you over to a tent which has a bunch of computers there and you answer the questions. I have no idea what is being asked, but I stay away from them. The main purpose of these polls are not to collect information, but rather to collect names for mailing/email lists which they sell to companies. I believe that they get paid $1.00 per name collected. Sorry, but they are not interested in your opinion.

I was at Home Depot this morning and the guy hands me my receipt and tells me that if I call a certain number that is listed and take their 'poll' then I could win $5,000. Well, just think of how many people nationwide follow through on this and they compile their mailing lists and sell them. Once again, not interested in your opinion.....just interested in making many times more than the $5,000 that they are supposedly giving away.

I stay at Motel 6 and they also offer a chance to win a cash prize. Your chances of actually winning anything answering all these people's questions is extremely thin, But their chances of them making money off the use of your name, etc., is what it is all about.

So, it's up to you. That's what is happening,

Monterey Columbus Day Festival Oct 11-12

Hi People. We'll be down in Monterey this weekend for the Columbus Day Festival at the Custom House Plaza. The weather looks decent and it'd be a great idea for you to trek on down to the area. Great scenery. Do your Christmas shopping.

We are DandL CREATIONS and we sell hand-made shell jewelry, fannypacks, shoulder bags, wrap-around skirts and a lot more. We will be located in Space 28 in front of the 'Museum.' Come on down and check us out.

Here are some reviews of recent shows we have done:

Homefront on the Bay, Richmond Oct 4-5
Castro Valley Fall Festival Sep 13-14
Pittsburg Seafood Festival, Sep 6-7

If you are a vendor, there's at least two shows in the Bay Area that I would recommend staying away from. The Orinda Holiday Bazaar (nice event and a great effort by the promoters, but NOBODY buying...they've got money here, but they don't spend) Last year's review.

And I would stay away from the Vacaville Harvest Days Festival at the Nut Tree. Did it two weekends last year and virtually everybody did poorly. Was located next to the Pumpkin Patch and people just ran by, grabbed their pumpkins and got the hell out of there. They force vendors to pay $25 for a 'police permit' where you MUST give them yours SSN and Driver's License number and be treated like a criminal when they run a check on you. Absurd.